1. Field of the Invention
The present invent relates to improvements in picture displaying apparatus, such as picture or photograph albums and the like. More particularly, it relates to improvements in picture albums of the type that embody an audio module for providing an audio message related to picture being viewed by the album user.
2. Discussion of Prior Art
With the advent of microelectronics, integrated circuits, sound-recording microchips, etc., smaller and smaller sized consumer products are incorporating electronic audio devices to enhance their usefulness. For example, "talking" picture books and greeting cards are now available that automatically provide voice messages when they are opened. Typically, these voice messages are associated with and augment the graphic or pictorial information displayed in these products. See, e.g., the respective disclosures of U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,290,190 and 5,063,698. A variation on the voice message theme is the sound-illustrated music book disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,809,246. Such a book comprises a loose-leaf binder containing a plurality of sheets or pages of music, and an integral sound-producing circuit which is adapted to play the music appearing on the particular page to which the book has been opened. A photoelectric circuit operates to produce a digitally encoded signal representing the open page number. This circuit comprises a linear array of spaced photo resistors disposed on a pivotally mounted flap of material. The book user is required to manually position the photo resistor array to underlie a pattern of holes formed along the edges of each music sheet. Each sheet has a different hole pattern and the photo resistor array detects ambient light passing through the hole patterns to produce a binary output signal representing the sheet or page directly on top of the array.
While photoelectric circuits of the type described above are robust and relatively reliable in sensing a particular page number in a book of such pages, they do require user involvement (i.e., a manual step) in order to operate. In many applications, this manual step is undesirable in that it requires that a user be instructed as to how to operate the book. In some cases it is desirable that a "talking" book or album operate entirely automatically so that a user need only open the book or album to a desired page, e.g. where a picture of interest is located, and the book automatically plays back a pre-recorded message associated with that page. Also, it would be desirable that a user can signal the audio device to play a particular message associated with one of a plurality of messages on a given page by simply pointing a finger at the picture of interest. Further, in the case of a photo album, it is desirable that a "talking" version retain the overall aesthetics, feel and operation of a conventional photo album.